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How long has your company been in Commercial and Procurement Services?

We are an independent License Advisory Services organisation – we’ve only been operating for a couple of years. The team though have each been in the business > 15 years. Whether it be, having worked as specialists within a Vendor or an LSP. Each the best in their field.

Area of Focus/ Specialism(s):
We specialise in helping Companies really understand what their future technology demand are and recommend the best commercial and contractual solution or vehicle that will best meet their needs over the next 3 -5 years. We focus on 5 vendors MS/SAP/Oracle/IBM and Salesforce. Future Demand assessment, Benchmarking, Negotiation Support.

What is the biggest change you’ve seen in SAM since you started in this discipline?
Despite the product bundles becoming richer and the introduction of more user orientated license metrics the SW vendor contracts are not becoming easier to understand or manage. Whilst many companies are transitioning to Cloud/ Subscription services they now need to understand and appreciate much more the value of their assets they’re leaving behind and build into their contracts a way out should they wish to change strategy/vendor at some point in the future.We are also starting to see customers who made large global Cloud commitments with one single vendor and now wish to adopt a more versatile, multi- vendor Cloud strategy. The initial global commitment made to one single vendor however often proves cost-prohibitive to a new multi-vendor approach. For this reason, we aim to ensure our clients keep the flexibility whilst still attracting the best possible commercial terms.

What gives you the greatest satisfaction about being in SAM?
Obviously getting absolute client satisfaction from a project. In terms of the work we do, there is a very immediate and measurable ROI. A win-win is the Client achieves much more than they anticipated and not just in savings, but having a well-articulated future roadmap with which they absolutely understand how the technology will support and accelerate their business coupled with the vendor really understanding the client in terms of how best to support them in executing on their journey.

If you could change one aspect of SAM, what would it be?
It would be the misconception that SAM is about audits, fear and pain. I suspect only now is the hangover from days gone by lifting somewhat. The way most of the ITAMS community and key vendors are approaching clients is possibly more sophisticated and framed in a much more positive and enabling way. Additionally, as clients move across to cloud services this will change the dynamic significantly – also the onus will be more on the vendor proving that the client is consuming the services rather than needing to prove entitlement.

Rory has a wide range of first-hand experience advising numerous companies and organisations on the best practices and principles pertaining to software asset management. This experience has been gained in both military and civil organisations, including the Royal Navy, Compaq, HP, the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) and several software vendors.